How come you can't look at the sun when it's high in the sky without enduring a lot of pain in your eyes, but you CAN look at a sunset...it's not really painful. Why is that?
2006-12-31 07:13:28 · 5 answers · asked by Carissa C. 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
There is more atmosphere between your eye and the sun at sunset.
The atmosphere goes up about 20 miles, all straight between you and the sun at noon.
At sunset, you are looking toward the horizon, about 10 miles away, plus the angle through the air at that point, perhaps another 30 or 40 miles of atmosphere, since you are not looking directly up. The dust and moisture make the colors different and also help obscure the sun.
Think of it this way to visualize it. If you were in a 10ft swimming pool looking from the bottom at the sun at noon, you would see through 10 feet of water. But as the sun moves across the pool and goes down, you would be looking through the water across the length of the pool and may not be able to see it eventually because of all the dozens of feet of water you look through at an angle.
2006-12-31 07:20:39 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the sun appears to be setting on the horizon it has actually already dropped below the horizon, what we see is an image of light rays bent by the atmosphere.
2007-01-01 07:01:17 · answer #2 · answered by jimmymae2000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As the sun sets, its light is hitting the earth's atmosphere at an angle, so there's more atmosphere for the light to go through, helping to shade some of its light.
2006-12-31 07:23:22 · answer #3 · answered by Joni 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because there is less radiation being given off and your eyes conduct less brightness from the solar sun
2006-12-31 07:22:33 · answer #4 · answered by el arabo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is also not good for your eyes. Soon u will be night blind.
2006-12-31 07:15:41 · answer #5 · answered by JOHNNIE B 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋